Suzette Grillot

Host of World Views

Dean of the College of International Studies at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Suzette Grillot hosts this locally-produced show on KGOU. Dean Grillot previously served as the College’s Associate Dean from July 2008-June 2012 and was essential to its creation and development. Additionally, she serves as the William J. Crowe, Jr. Chair in Geopolitics and the Vice Provost of International Programs. She has been recognized with the Gary B. Cohen Distinguished Faculty Award, was named the Educator’s Leadership Academy Outstanding Professor, and was recipient of the OU President’s Distinguished Faculty Mentor Award.

Dean Grillot is a prolific author, with articles published in the British Journal of Political Science, International Politics, and Contemporary Security Policy, among many others. She recently co-edited the book, Understanding the Global Community and co-authored the books Protecting Our Ports: National and International Security of Containerized Freight (2010) and The International Arms Trade (2009).

Trained in international relations, security studies and comparative politics, Dean Grillot teaches several dynamic courses each semester, focusing on subjects such as Global Security, International Activism, Illicit Trafficking, and International Politics, Literature and Film. Dean Grillot’s curiosity about the world and its people has led her to spend a semester teaching in Macedonia as a Fulbright Scholar (2003) and a semester as a teaching fellow at Beijing University in China (2007).

Ways to Connect

Editor's Note: This interview was originally broadcast January 14, 2014

Ambassador John Limbert and 51 diplomatic and military colleagues were taken prisoner in the former U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. They were released 444 days later as Ronald Reagan was sworn into office on January 20, 1981.

Next week, British voters will decide whether or not to withdraw from the European Union, and Suzette Grillot talks about this so-called “Brexit” with Mitchell Smith, the director of the University of Oklahoma’s EU Center.

But first, Suzette and Rebecca Cruise discuss political developments in Italy regarding the Roman mayoral election, and conflict and corruption surrounding precious gem trade in Afghanistan.

Six days from now British voters head to the polls for a referendum on whether or not to leave the European Union. The June 23 vote may be the first step toward concluding Britain’s more than 40-year awkward relationship with the rest of continental Europe.

Queen Wilhelmina fled to London, and Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia cut the Netherlands off from the Dutch East Indies, an expansive colony stretching from the tip of mainland Asia to the northern edge of Australia.

Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot discuss the new generation of Kosovar Albanians that are being recruited into organizations like ISIS, and a massive sinkhole in Florence, Italy.

Then Suzette talks with United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary racism Mutuma Ruteere. He argues one side effect of globalization is that it actually makes it easier to develop racist or xenophobic beliefs.

Contingents from around the world gathered in Istanbul earlier this week for the first-ever United Nations World Humanitarian Summit. The goal is to overhaul how aid is delivered, and to make the world safer for refugees during what the U.N. has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.

Political scientist and self-described “military sociologist” Zoltan Barany argues it’s possible to predict how a general will respond to a domestic revolt if we know enough about the army, the state and society it serves, and the external environment.

But first, Rebecca Cruise and Suzette Grillot talk about former Boko Haram kidnapping victims, and the expansion of NATO as the alliance invites the small Balkan nation of Montenegro to join.

In February 2011, President Obama criticized the U.S. intelligence community for not accurately forecasting the unrest in Tunisia would spread to Egypt and other Middle East countries, sparking a region-wide Arab Spring, an unremitting civil war in Syria, and the rise of ISIS.

The president had harsh words for the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper about how quickly the forces in Tunisia turned against the authoritarian regime, The New York Times’ Mark Mazzetti wrote at the time:

When anthropologist Laura Graham was working on her graduate research with the Xavante people in Brazil during the 1990s, she encountered a Catholic priest who inadvertently showed her the power of media.

“He came to the community, and he brought film of Xavante that had been filmed in another area,” Graham said. “And they were so excited to see this film. But he said, ‘You can watch this film after you watch a film of Jesus Christ and the Resurrection.’ So it was this kind of bribe. And that made a big impression on me.”

London’s new mayor Sadiq Khan formally took office Sunday. He’s the first Muslim mayor of London, and comes from a humble background. Born in England, he’s the son of Pakistani immigrants – his mother worked as a seamstress, and his father drove a bus.

Thom Shanker spent nearly 14 years covering the Pentagon for The New York Times, and says U.S. foreign policy should be about earning respect and trust instead of winning hearts and minds. He’ll also talk with Suzette Grillot about his book Counterstrike that focuses on the U.S. campaign against Al Qaeda.

But first, Suzette and Rebecca Cruise discuss the North Korean Workers Party's first Congress in nearly four decades, new details about American missionary Kenneth Bae's time in a North Korean prison camp, and the cruise ship from Miami that docked in Cuba this week.

North Korea, past and present, is at the top of the international consciousness this week.

The reclusive country convened the Seventh Workers’ Party Congress in Pyongyang on Friday. It’s the highest political gathering the country holds, and the country hasn’t held one in 36 years, before the current leader Kim Jong-un was born. During the Sixth Party Congress in 1980, then-leader Kim Il-sung announced his son Kim Jong-il would succeed him. The second-generation Kim led the country from 1994 until his death in 2011.

Thom Shanker took a job as the Pentagon correspondent for The New York Times in May 2001. Four months later hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the western wall of the building during the September 11 attacks, and he spent the next 14 years covering the war on terror.

Joshua Landis and Suzette Grillot discuss several stories in the Middle East he’s been following this week, including President Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia and the latest from Syria.

Then University of Oklahoma educational psychologist Janette Habashi joins Suzette to talk about her charity Child’s Cup Full, and her work providing musical instruments to refugee children in the West Bank.

On Friday, France’s foreign minister described talks over Syria’s future as entering a “danger zone.” Opposition leaders have stepped away from the negotiating table in Geneva, accusing the regime led by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad of violating the cease-fire the U.S. and Russia painfully put together.

Representative of Assad’s regime might not even be at the negotiating table without Russia’s intervention. Airstrikes helped Syrian forces take back territory, put the rebels on their heel, and attack ISIS positions in the ancient city of Palmyra.

University of Oklahoma human relations professor Janette Habashi grew up was born in Jerusalem, but left to pursue graduate work in England and the United States. But her native West Bank has never been far from her heart.